Unselfish play leads to convincing win for Berthoud girls basketball

Spartans score 40 points in the paint, shoot 47 percent from the field

By Sean Star Sports Writer

Posted:
12/13/2013 10:37:27 PM MST

Berthoud sophomore Kristina Cavey, right, starts a fastbreak while Vista Peak's Alicia Rhone pursues on the play in the first quarter Friday at BHS. Cavey scored a game-best 19 points in the 63-28 victory.
(
Steve Stoner
)

BERTHOUD -- Defense has long been a staple of coach Randy Earl's Berthoud girls basketball team. And the Spartans played pretty well at that end of the floor Friday night.

But the Spartans won't always be able to grind out every opponent, so knowing that they can fill it up at the other end -- like they did against Vista Peak in a 63-28 victory at BHS -- was a nice confidence boost for the team early in the season.

Three Spartans scored in double figures to lead the team to its second straight win of the Spartan Classic while improving to 3-1. Kristina Cavey led the way with 19 points, while Sami Kouns had 14, Taylor Armitage 11, Kendall Baker nine and Lindsay Erickson eight.

"It's definitely nice to know that we can score," said Kouns, who had two of her team's three 3-pointers, "especially as we get further into the season knowing that we have our offense to fall back on if our defense isn't stepping up."

The 63 points were more than the Spartans scored in any game last year and 10 better than what they produced in their past two games combined. They shot 47.3 percent from the field (26 of 55), thanks largely to their 40 points in the paint. They scored at least 13 points in each quarter and held the Bison (3-2) to single digits in all but one frame (a 12-point third quarter).

For Earl the key to the offensive firepower was his team's unselfishness and ability to pass up on a good shot for a better one.

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"The kids ran the offense well, but a lot of it was we got steals and took off on the break," the coach said. "Someone could've laid it up, but instead they drew the defense to them and passed it off gave somebody else a layup."

As the final tally would indicate, Earl's team was in total control Friday night. After an early 2-all tie, Berthoud closed the first quarter on a 16-2 run to take a commanding lead that was never threatened the rest of the night. The Spartans led 32-10 at halftime and 50-22 after three.

The Spartans weren't just unselfish. They also played effectively with their team-first approach.

"It's awesome because we just had a lot of great passes. I think we did a better job rebounding too," said Cavey, who was 8-for-14 shooting. "We were really unselfish, so we got the ball around to everyone. I think that honestly was one of the biggest key factors to us scoring a lot."

Playing unselfishly may seem like a given, but as senior, Kouns knows that's not always the case with every team.

"We've looked beyond ourselves, which is a surprise. Because teams I've played on in the past it's just been about me, me, me," she said. "And this team, if someone's open, they'll feed them the ball. And if someone has the hot hand, we'll get them the ball because we know that they can score."